Complaint Review: D R Horton

My husband and I have waited patiently for over (10) ten years for completion of a simple cash property transaction. We purchased a small inexpensive D R Horton 3X2 condominium unit that included 1.78% of the Horizontal Property Regime common area. Being tenants in common with 55 other co-owners of the Horizontal Property Regime is a new type of condominium ownership for us and the other association members. Maybe an HOA format is the normal expectation but I am concerned because all the co-owners are actually Tenants in Common and should own their HPR/POA condominiums and 1.7/8% of the entire common area property instead of just being HOA members and they still don't. We informed the developer, D R Horton in 2010 and again (3) months before their chosen absolute final date of 12/31/2016 for completion they drafted into our Master Deed. Both times, we notified Horton they had failed to transfer the common area property that we all paid for in 2006. The D R Horton representative after numerous un-returned calls finally told our Management Company they had lost the plat and paperwork and they would do what they could. (The dog ate my homework?) My husband and I went again to the Register of Deeds and spent hours waiting to discuss the situation with the assessor, register of deeds and the Maps and Zoning department about the issue.

The results of our inquiry were alarming and disconcerting because we already had all the recorded plats and amendments in our possession that the county new existed. Unlike the other property transactions my husband and I have made over the years, D R Horton is continuing to stall the 55 other Tenants in Common including us regarding the common area transfer that would simply complete the other half of everyone’s original transaction. After extensive investigation, the original common area of 15.23 acres, when the HPR was formed no longer exists. The ability to transfer any of the common property included in our closing documents to any of the co-owners of the HPR is now impossible. We believe D R Horton’s sale of 3.9 acres of an established HPR common property, then separating/dividing and transferring areas of the property to themselves after the sale, has left only a 4.58+- acre null parcel 11 years after our purchase is criminal.

As of October 31 2017, this now tiny Null parcel along with the improvements, a dumpster and mailbox area still belongs to D R Horton. This entire situation will be difficult to explain to the rest of the association considering none belongs to the Horizontal Property Regime after all these years. Why would this situation still be hanging over our heads after closing on the 15.23-acre parcel in 2006? Breach of Contract and Contract Fraud come to mind regarding this D R Horton situation. No one at the County Municipal Building had any suggestions other than finding the Best Real Estate Attorney in the area to represent us in this matter. Unfortunately, D R Horton has all the best real estate attorneys in our area on retainer. Without the help of an attorney, suggested by our Management Company we would be completely uninformed and unable to get anything we paid for because of the statute of limitations. Everyone that bought here was convinced by D R Horton that we were going to have our own pool and be part of a larger master community. Coincidently, we had no actual amenities built for our co-owners because the Horton representative said there was not enough room on our parcel, we would be part of the larger community anyway and they had a huge pool and clubhouse.

The unfortunate reality is that nobody living here is even welcome to pay to join the Golf club much less be a part of it. We were all manipulated, stalled and misinformed by D R Horton and their chosen management company and after waiting 5 years, we ended up being forced into building a pool for the neighboring D R Horton community so we could share their amenity that was actually just being used to sell their new property. The only leverage we have come up with is an extremely open-ended, them or us penalty fee assessment of $500/per day from D R Horton’s own closing documents regarding delay of the closing transaction. D R Horton intentionally transferred the property from their LLC. to their INC. in late 2008/2009, after the horizontal property regime was totally under co-owner board control, but not annexed into the association. An attorney could possibly negotiate/litigate for our common area property, as there is nothing else we can think to do in this situation other than using the State law versus the Master Deed, or pay to go to Court to simply have our property transferred as agreed at closing. Frankly, after collecting the plat maps because of minor damage from hurricane Mathew we found out for the very first time that after almost 11 years our HPR/POA community owned nothing. It was originally a 15.23-acre parcel at closing and supposedly part of the larger community with our own pool. It has now been reduced to just a 4.58 acre Null parcel. D R Horton indicated to the SEC that they kept 400 million dollars aside for construction defects and legal issues like ours as normal yearly business expenditures. So that is why we need legal advice to get the common property all 56 co-owners thought they purchased from D R Horton in 2006 back to the association were it is recorded in the closing documents and master Deed that it should be.

We have learned a very unpleasant lesson with this small, seemingly simple Investment, which we will most certainly never forget. In our opinion, no one should ever buy a D R Horton home because they have defective construction and the company is very corrupt.